Wherever a civilization has flourished, so has the iris. Usually in the very fancy company, indeed!
Iris At Karnak
Thutmosis III, the greatest of the conquering Pharaohs, brought it to Egypt from Syria in the last half of the 15th century B. C.
A witness is an iris in bas-relief on the walls of his temple at Karnak, an iris carved on the scepters of rulers who followed him, and on the brow of various Sphinxes. In Greece and Rome, the flower was personified.
In Early Greeks
To the early Greeks, iris were handmaidens of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth—handmaidens who played important parts in that adventure of hers that caused the year to be divided into four seasons.
In Early Romans
To the early Romans, Iris, taking her name from the rainbow she traveled on her errands between heaven and earth, was the golden-winged messenger of the goddess Juno.
In Rome, as in the East, water was cherished as a necessity and as an ornament. Gardens, about which Roman houses were built, invariably held pools, fountains, or both, surrounded by moisture-loving plants like Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag.
This blue-purple atropurpurea and sable tuberose were prized for their beauty, medicinal properties, and religious significance, especially in rites of purification.
Mohammedan’s Luxuriant Gardens
To the 7th century Mohammedan, Paradise itself was a series of luxuriant gardens.
The Mohammedan Arab, absorbing the culture of the people he conquered, adopted the ancient Persian ideal: a garden formal in shape and planting, designed for rest and contemplation, made private, even in the case of the smallest, by a high wall.
Intersecting paths created a rectangle, its four parts often marked where they met by a shallow pool lined with blue tile or a glistening fountain. Within the walls, cypress, willow, and poplar provided shade.
Color of Vied Iris
There was the song of the nightingale and, occasionally, a bed near the pool planted entirely to white blooms for moonlight pleasure.
Here iris vied with rose, mallow, jasmine and lavender. Sometimes it was the short form of the strangely beautiful oncocyclus with its enormous flowers and somber colors:
- Blue or brown veins on a white or
- Straw-colored ground gives the effect of sky blue, gray, brown, or
- Almost black blossoms
Sometimes it was the taller bearded albicans, the pure white species, carried as a sacred emblem by the Mohammedans to northern Africa, even to Spain.
Iris As Emblem Of Kings
By saving the day, so to speak, the iris also became the emblem of the kings of France.
At the beginning of the 6th century, the army of Clovis I, King of the Franks, was trapped near Cologne between a greater force of barbaric Goths and the Rhine River.
Noting that the yellow flag reached far into the river at one point, the crafty warrior suspected shallow water.
With his men, he chanced it, forded the river, and later vanquished the enemy. Then, out of gratitude, he adopted the golden iris as his emblem.
In the 12th century, when he left his peaceful orchard lands, scattered over with pinks, columbine, and iris, to support the second crusade to the Holy Land, Louis VII, undoubtedly inspired by Clovis, took a pure white form of the iris as his blazon.
It became known as his flower, flew de Louis, and corrupted later to the fleur-de-lis. Finally, Louis’ flower was incorporated into the royal arms of England by Edward III in 1340.
Lily of France
Claiming France through his mother Isabella, Edward added the “lily” of France to the British lion on the shield his knights and sturdy yeomen with longbows rallied to in the famous battle of Crecy.
And the lily of France persisted in Great Britain’s arms until the early 19th century, when it was removed.
44659 by Carolyn S. Langdon